Foldable play animal



Oct. 18, 1955 G. F. WISCHER FOLDABLE PLAY ANIMAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 6, 1953 INVENTOR 660]96 I? l Vz'sc/zer BY //M r W %:TTKS 7 Oct. 18, 1955 G, F w R 2,721,080

FOLDABLE PLAY ANIMAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 6, 1953 JNVENTOR. 7/ 74 George F mac/1e,

'fl- 7 W 51??? United States Patent Ofifice 2,721,080 Patented Oct. 18, 1955 FOLDABLE PLAY ANIMAL George F. Wischer, Covington, Ky.

Application February 6, 1953, Serial No. 335,469

2 Claims. (Cl. 272-1) This invention relates to a foldable play animal and is particularly directed to a body construction for play animals that can be made from sheet material such as carboard, or the like, and which may be manufactured in a flat or knock-down form and readily folded and erected by the ultimate consumer.

The object of the present invention is generally to provide a knock-down, inexpensive cow-pony of simplified construction which when folded and assembled will have sutficient inherent rigidity to maintain its form under normal playing conditions and yet yield to abnormal forces such as, for instance, that created by a person falling upon the assembled cow-poney body during usage.

Another object of the invention is to provide a safe and practical cow-pony construction that may be attached to the person of a child and be worn about its waist to simulate the appearance of a pony and rider.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described in detail, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a side elevational View of my cow-pony after two separate out and creased blanks have been folded and assembled in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the cow-pony shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section taken on line 44 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 55 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of a flat blank of cardboard from which the body element of my cow-pony is constructed; folding creases therein being shown in broken lines whilst full lines therein represent cuts and punches.

Fig. 7 is a plan view like Fig. 6 showing a flat blank of cardboard from which the head element of my cow-pony is made.

Referring to the drawings in detail and particularly Figs. 1 and 6 it will be noted that the play animal is depicted as a cow-pony 10 which has a hollow body element 11 constructed from a flat blank 12 of cardboard, fibre board, or the like. The body element has a central top panel 13 formed to provide a centrally located aperture 14 in which the person of a child may stand with the top panel disposed at about Waist level.

The blank 12 is cut from stock by die operation and the shape obtained is that shown in Fig. 6. Simultaneous with the blanking operation the cardboard is also creased along the lines indicated at 15, 16, 17 and 13 to form side panels 19 and 29 and front and rear sections 21 and 22 respectively, all hingedly connected to the top panel at their respective crease lines. The front section may comprise two small panels 23 and 24 hinged together at a crease line 25, each section being provided with laterally opposed, foldable flanges 26-27 and 28-29, respectively. The flanges are all provided with one or more punch out holes 30 which are brought into alignment with similar holes 31 formed in the front edge portions of the side panels 19 and 20 when the side panels and the front section 21 are folded into their operative positions shown in Figs. 1-3 of the drawing. In said operative positions suitable fatseners 32 are inserted through the aligned holes from the outside such that the heads of the fasteners are exposed and the legs of the fasteners are turned back upon the interior surfaces of the flanges.

In like manner the rear section 22 is divided into three panels 33, 34 and 35 by lateral crease lines 36 and 37, the lateral edges of said panels being secured to the panels 19 and 20 by fasteners which pass through aligned holes formed through the rear edge portions of the side panels and through suitable flanges bent at right angles to their respective panels for the rear section. A series of short intersecting cuts 38 are formed in the panel 33 for receiving and holding an imitation tail 39 of the cow-pony.

The centrally located aperture 14 is formed in the top panel 13 by a series of cuts and creases made during the die operation of the blank 12. As best shown in Fig. 6 one of these creases 40 extends laterally across the rear portion of the panel, the opposite ends of the said crease being joined by curved, forwardly extending cuts 41 and 42 which terminate at the crease lines 15 and 16, respectively. A pair of laterally spaced cuts 43 and 44 intersect the inner ends of the curved cuts 41 and 42, respectively, and extend forwardly to a point short of the crease line 17, the forward ends of the cuts 43 and 44 being joined by a lateral crease line 45. Rearwardly extending curved cuts 46 and 47 join the forward ends of the cuts 43 and 44 with the crease lines 15 and 167 A lateral cut 109 joins the cuts 43 and 44 just forwardly of the crease line 40 to provide a reenforcing flap 101 for the rear edge portion of the aperture 14, said flap 101 being folded under on the crease line 46 and secured flat against the underside of the top panel section by a suitable staple, or the like, clinched through the top panel and the said flap. It will therefore be understood that the cuts 106, 43 and 44 form a cut-out top panel section 48 which is hingedly connected to the said top panel 13 by the fold line 45. The top panel section 48 has a transverse crease line 49 formed thereacross adjacent the forward end thereof so that it divides said section into a narrow panel 50 and a relatively wide panel 51.

With reference to Fig. 3 it will be noted that upon folding the cut-out top panel section 48 inwardly on the crease line the narrow panel will lie against the underside of the forward part of the top panel 13, whilst the relatively wide panel 51 will be positioned fiat against a portion of the interior face of the panel 23 of the front section 21. Laterally spaced, longitudinally extending slots 52 and 53 are formed through the side portions of the panel 51 of the cut-out section 45 and are brought into registry with the top slots of a series of slots 54 and 55, respectively, formed through the central portion of the front panel 23. The front panel also has two laterally extending slots 56 and 57 located between the series of slots 54 and and adjacent the fold lines 25 and 17, respectively. The aforesaid arrangement of the front panel 23 and the cut-out section 51 of the top panel 13, and their slotted construction, provide one part of a novel joint for securing the body element to a head element to form the cow-pony figure as will be more fully described hereinafter.

Reenforcing side flanges 58 and 59 for the body element are respectively formed by the cuts 46, 43 and 41 3 and cuts 47, 44 and 42, said flanges being folded against their respective side panels 19 and 20 as indicated in Figs. 3 and 5.. Each flange and its adjacent side panel are formed with aligned grommets 60 which receive the end of a suitable rope loop 61 adapted to pass around t V the shoulders of the person of a'child standing in the With particular reference to Figs. 2, 3 and 7 of the drawing ahead element 63 is provided for the play animal and includes a tubular neck portion 64 made by interconnected panels 65, 66, 67 and 68 cut from a blank' of material in the form indicated in Fig. 7. A series of hingedly connected narrow panels 69 may be connected to the upper end of the panel 66 by a fold line 70 so that they comprise interconnecting and strengthening means for the head element forming panels 65 and 67. The head element panel 65 has a pair of spaced tabs 71 extending from its lower edge whilst the panel 67 has a pair of spaced tabs 72 extending from its lower edge. These pairs of tabs 71 and 72 are respectively insertable into the series of slots in the front section of the body element and the aligned slots 52 and 53 in the cut-out section 51 in a manner such that the pair of tabs 72 pass through the slot 52 and the series of slots 54 and the pair of slots 71 pass through the slot 53 and its aligned series of slots 55 in the body element. As shown in Fig. 4 after the insertion of the tabs in their respective slots the free ends thereof are bent at right angles to the panels and a fastener 73 is passed through holes formed through the panel 23 in case of the lowermost slots of the series 54 and 55 and through panels 4. of both the front part of the top panel and the top part of the front panel to strengthen said panels and to materially increase the strength of the joint between the body and head elements of the assembled toy animal so that the structure will have suflicient resistance to normal forces exerted on the cow-pony animal during play. To this end the upper tabs of the pairs 7172 on the lower edge of the head element 63 of the simulated animal are passed through two thicknesses of the sheet material of the body element and the inner ends thereof are then bent at right angles against the inner face of material and there secured to the body element by a suitable fastener, thus providing a reenforced and very' strong construction at the point of connection between the body and head elements where relatively great stresses and'strains occur during ordinary use of the cow-pony- What is claimed is: 1. A foldable play animal including in combination a hollow body element formed from a blank of flexible material and comprising a centrally located top panel having a central aperture formed therein in which a erson may stand, side panels foldably connected to.

the opposite lateral edges of the top panel, a front panel foldably connected to the front edge of the top panel, means for connecting the lateral edge portions of the front panel to the front edge portions of the adjacent side panels, a cut-out top panel section normally located Within the central aperture and foldably attached to the top panel only along the front edge formed by the aperture, said cut-out panel section being foldable against the interior face of the front panel, a series of slots 7 formed in the front panel and thecut-out top panel 23 and 51 with respect to the uppermost slots of the V series and also through the said tab to secure the tab in its operative position. The panels 66 and 68 are each provided with a single tab 74 and 75, respectively, which are entered in slots 57 and 56, respectively, to provide additional support for the head element.

It will therefore be noted that I have provided a relatively simple knock-down toy construction that may be made form a blank of cheap material, shipped in fiat condition and readily folded and arranged to form a cow 1 pony toy animal by the ultimate consumer.

section, the series of slots in the panel and the section being disposd in alignrnent when the top panel section is against the front panel, a head element for the animal made from a blank of flexible material and including a tubular neck portion, a series of foldable tabs extending from the lower edge of the neck portion and inserted into the series of aligned slots in the body element, and a fastener securing together the outerend'of each of the folded tabs, the-panel and the section.

2. A foldable play animal according to claim' 1 characterized by the fact that the fastener is inserted through aligned, pre-punched holes formed through each tab, the panel and the section, the legs of said fastener being turned over against the folded tab.

' References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,438,083 Baker Dec. 5, 1922 2,035,353 Torme Mar. 24, 1936 2,100,245 Fagan Nov. 23, 1937 2,170,953 Spots a Aug. 29, 1939 2,264,214 Lawrence Nov. 25, 1941 2,585,279 Sickebower Feb. 12, 1952 

